About the Boycotts

Please refer the Union Hotel Guide to search for recommended union hotels. Make sure to steer clear of boycotted hotels and you may wish to consider the desirability of staying at hotels that are at risk of dispute (where there are current or looming labor disputes). Be aware that this list only reflects the present status of union hotels across North America. To avoid the prospect of labor conflict during your stay at a hotel, insist on protective contractual language when you make a reservation or organize an event. For model protective language, click here.

HYATT BOYCOTTS

Hyatt has eliminated jobs, replaced career housekeepers with minimum wage temporary workers, and imposed dangerous workloads on those who remain. Meanwhile, the billionaires that run Hyatt banked over $900 million in one day when Hyatt became a publicly traded company.

Now thousands of Hyatt workers at more than a dozen Hyatt Hotels across the U.S. are standing up to Hyatt by calling for a boycott—asking that travelers not eat, sleep or meet at boycotted Hyatt Hotels. Hyatt workers are sacrificing now in the hope of securing a better future for themselves and their families in the years to come.

CONGRESS HOTEL BOYCOTT

THE LONGEST HOTEL STRIKE IN AMERICAN HISTORY: On June 15, 2003, members of UNITE HERE Local 1 working at the Congress Hotel went out on strike after the hotel decided to freeze wages and slash benefits. To ensure that hotel jobs in this city are strong, family-sustaining jobs, Congress strikers have taken the fight to the streets of Chicago and around the world. The Congress Hotel strike stands as the longest hotel strike in history. For more information, visit www.PresidentPicketsCongress.org.

COLUMBIA SUSSEX HOTEL BOYCOTT

Hotel workers and the hotel workers' union, UNITE HERE, have called on customers to boycott the Anchorage Hilton owned by Columbia Sussex.

Union workers at the Columbia Sussex-owned Hilton Anchorage called for a boycott of the hotel in May 2009. Columbia Sussex acquired the 600 room hotel in December 2005, while a collective bargaining agreement was already in place for its 160 workers. The inherited contract expired on August 31, 2008. Negotiations with the union stalled, and on April 14, 2009, the Columbia Sussex implemented its last offer resulting in combining job classifications to increase workload and increasing the maximum number of rooms cleaned by housekeepers from 15 to 17 per day. Groups that have honored the boycott include AFGE, NEA, and the Carpenters Union.

Columbia Sussex is one of the largest owners of full service hotels in the U.S., building its 51-hotel empire during the boom years by borrowing heavily to buy hotels. Columbia Sussex has recently lost more than 20 hotels to debt problems, including 14 which were taken over by Blackstone in December 2010 when Columbia Sussex did not refinance the outstanding $1 billion in loans.

Click here for more information on the Columbia Sussex hotel boycotts.

HEI Boycotts:

Workers at several properties run by HEI Hotels & Resorts—including Le Meridien in San Francisco, the Long Beach Hilton in Southern California, the Sheraton Crystal City in Northern Virginia, and the Embassy Suites in Irvine, California—have called boycotts in support of their demand that their employer adopt a fair process that allows them to decide whether to have a union in an environment free from employer intimidation. Since taking this demand to their employer, union supporters have been terminated, and others have brought charges against HEI for illegal intimidation, surveillance, and interference with their right to organize. Student activists from around the US have joined workers in this campaign, because most of HEI’s financial backing comes from large university endowments. For more information, visit HEIworkersrising.org.